The present invention relates to facial recognition and on-line technologies, and more particularly to applying facial recognition to obtain a casualty identity. Incapacitated, confused or casualties otherwise unable to provide medical information are at risk of greater harm or death because emergency medical providers may be unaware of pre-existing medical conditions. Some medical conditions that place these individual at risk include: Diabetics, Epileptics, those with HIV+, Hepatitis or heart conditions, or have antibiotic, animal or other allergies.
In the United States alone there are over 136.5M Emergency room visits per year. Of that number, there are approximately 1 million unconscious or otherwise non-communicative patient ER arrivals per year, with about 650 thousand John or Mary Doe ER admissions. Research studies indicate that there is a better survival rate for those patients whose identity eventually becomes known. Conventionally, medic alert bracelets have also improved medical outcomes and facilitated patient identification.
Emergency Medical Technicians (EMTs), Paramedics and Emergency Room personnel need quick access to a casualty's pre-existing medical conditions and other vital medical information when the casualty is incapacitated or otherwise (i.e. language, age or dementia) unable to provide it.
Previous systems for utilizing facial recognition technology to obtain or confirm a patient identity, such as that disclosed in U.S. Patent Application No. 2009/0136094 require that the patient be known to the system. That is, in a health care setting or patient administration system, the patient has previously registered with the system. The health care facility or plan, as part of the registration process, would capture an image of the patient and maintain it as part of the patient's records. In these circumstances, the subsequent use of facial recognition technologies to identify the patient within the system, is in a sense, just an extension of barcode, and similar technologies, for confirming the identity of a patient during a subsequent patient contact.
These systems find good application within a healthcare facility or a healthcare network utilizing a proprietary network, hardware, and software and requires ongoing operating costs be borne by the providing institution. These systems are proprietary and are not generally available to users beyond the confines of the institution in which they reside. These systems are of limited to no value in emergency settings, typically remote from a healthcare facility, where the identity of a casualty is unknown.
As can be seen, there is a need for a generalized and globally accessible system and method for improving the identification of a casualty at an injury or incident site, or on presenting at an Emergency services health care facility on an initial encounter with that facility.